History Music / Swordfishtrombones

[[caption-width-right:350: ''There's a world going on, underground. They're alive, they're awake, while the rest of world is asleep.'' ]]

''Swordfishtrombones'' is a 1983 album by Music/TomWaits. In many ways "Swordfishtrombones" was a NewSoundAlbum. It was the first album he produced himself and the first to mark a radical change in style. He left his "drunk jazzy crooner/pianist image" from his previous seven albums and moved to a more AvantGardeMusic style, inspired by carnival music and Music/CaptainBeefheart. Seeing that Waits was finally starting to get some success as a singer this was quite a bold move. In fact, [[DevelopmentHell the album was already recorded in 1982, but took Waits 13 months before he found a label interested in releasing it]].

* AsianAirhead: "In The Neighborhood":
-->''There's a couple Filipino girls gigglin' by the church''

* RefrainFromAssuming: There is no TitleTrack on this album, but there is a title that comes pretty close: "Swordfishtrombone", which is singular rather than plural. The song "Frank's Wild Years" also appears on this album and ''not'', as you might expect, on the album ''Music/FranksWildYears''.

* {{Corpsing}}: Laughter is heard after "Frank's Wild Years" is concluded.

* DeliberatelyMonochrome: The album cover is in black-and-white.

* YourCheatingHeart: "Gin Soaked Boy".
-->''You went and slipped out nights''\\
''You didn't think that I'd know''\\
''With some''\\
''Gin-soaked boy that you don't know''

* TheAlcoholic: "Gin Soaked Boy"
--> ''How could you crawl so low with some gin-soaked boy that you don't know?''
--> ''I come home last night full a filth of Old Crow''

* AsianAirhead: "In The Neighborhood"
--> ''There's a couple Filipino girls gigglin' by the church''
* AvantGardeMusic: This album marked Waits' move into avantgarde music, exemplified by the very first track on the album:
--> ''There's a world going on UNDERGROUND''
--> ''They're alive, they're awake''
--> ''While the rest of the world is asleep''
* BeneathTheEarth: "Underground"

all the trucks unload beyond the gopher holes\\
There's a world going on underground.''
* BlackComedy: "Frank's Wild Years"
--> ''Well Frank settled down in the Valley''
--> ''And hung his wild years on a nail that he drove through his wife's forehead''
* BreakUpSong: "Gin Soaked Boy"
--> ''You been lying to me''
--> ''How could you crawl so low with some gin-soaked boy that you don't know?''
* CarefulWithThatAxe: "Shore Leave" features Waits squealing the title in a high pitched voice near the end.

* ContinuityNod: "Just Another Sucker on the Vine" reminds fans of the previous album ''Music/HeartattackAndVine'' (1980). The song "Frank's Wild Years" already predates the future album ''Music/FranksWildYears'' (1987)

* CradleOfLoneliness: "Shore Leave"
--> ''And I'm so far away from home''
--> ''And I miss my baby so''
--> ''I can't make it by myself''
--> ''I love you so''
* CrapsackWorld / WretchedHive: "In The Neighborhood"
--> ''Well Big Mambo's kicking his old grey hound''
--> ''and the kids can't get ice cream 'cause the market burned down''
--> ''and the newspaper sleeping bags blow down the lane''
--> ''and that goddamn flatbed's got me pinned in again''
--> ''In the neighborhood''
--> ''In the neighborhood''
--> ''In the neighborhood''

* DyingTown and GhostTown: "A Town With No Cheer" which describes a town between Melbourne and Adelaide, abandoned after the railway no longer needed watering stops.

** "In The Neighborhood"
--> ''Well Big Mambo's kicking his old grey hound''
** "16 Shells From A Thirty-Ought-Six"
--> ''And I kicked that mule to the top of the tree''

--> ''Never could stand that dog''

* OneWordTitle: "Underground", "Swordfishtrombones" and "Rainbirds".
* ThePowerOfLove: "Johnsburg, Illinois"
--> ''She's my only true love''
--> ''She's all that I think of''

** "16 Shells From A Thirty Oughts Six"
--> ''I tore out the buckets from a Red Corvette''
** "Franks Wild Years"
--> ''(...) picked up a couple Mickey's Big Mouths''
--> ''Drank 'em in the car on his way to the Shell station''

* RefrainFromAssuming: There is no TitleTrack on this album, but there is a title that comes pretty close: "Swordfishtrombone", which is singular rather than plural. The song "Frank's Wild Years" also appears on this album and ''not'', as you might expect on the album ''Music/FranksWildYears''.
* ShoutOut:
** The album cover shows Waits in the presence of actor Angelo Rossitto, best known as the black haired dwarf actor in ''Film/{{Freaks}}'' (1932), and Lee Kolima, who appeared in ''Film/CannonballRunII'' (1984).
** ''Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000'' in the 16th episode of the fifth season, during their review of ''Film/AlienFromLA'' upon Wanda's arrival in Atlantis, Mike and the Bots start singing "Underground". Joel had previously sung the same song with the Bots in ''Film/FugitiveAlien 2''.
** "Underground" is heard in ''WesternAnimation/{{Robots}}''.
* SpiritualSuccessor: "Swordfishtrombones" forms a trilogy along with ''Music/RainDogs'' (1985) and ''Music/FranksWildYears'' (1987), centred around the fictional Frank O'Brien.

--> ''He went and took up with a Salvation Army Band girl who played dirty water on a swordfishtrombone''

--> ''And if you think that you can tell a bigger tale''
--> ''I swear to God you'd have to tell a lie''
* YourCheatingHeart: "Gin Soaked Boy"

''Gin-soaked boy that you don't know.''

* DyingTown and GhostTown: "A Town With No Cheer" which describes a town between Brisbane and Adelaide, abandoned after the railway no longer needed watering stops.

'''Swordfishtrombones''' is a 1983 album by Music/TomWaits. In many ways "Swordfishtrombones" was a NewSoundAlbum. It was the first album he produced himself and the first to mark a radical change in style. He left his "drunk jazzy crooner/pianist image" from his previous seven albums and moved to a more AvantGardeMusic style, inspired by carnival music and Music/CaptainBeefheart. Seeing that Waits was finally starting to get some success as a singer this was quite a bold move. In fact, [[DevelopmentHell the album was already recorded in 1982, but took Waits 13 months before he found a label interested in releasing it]].

"Swordfishtrombones" is well regarded as one of Waits' best albums, thanks to fan favorites such as "Underground", "In The Neighborhood" and "Frank's Wild Years".

'''Tracklist'''

# "In The Neighborhood" (3:04)

** The album cover shows Waits in the presence of actor Angelo Rossitto, best known as the black haired dwarf actor in ''Film/{{Freaks}}'' (1932), and Lee Kolima, who appeared in ''Film/CannonballRun II'' (1984).
** ''Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000'' in the 16th episode of the fifth season, during their review of ''Film/AlienFromLA'' upon Wanda's arrival in Atlantis, Mike and the Bots start singing "Underground". Joel had previously sung the same song with the Bots in Film/FugitiveAlien 2.

'''Swordfishtrombones''' is a 1983 album by Music/TomWaits. In many ways "Swordfishtrombones" was a NewSoundAlbum. It was the first album he produced himself and the first to mark a radical change in style. He left his "drunk jazzy crooner/pianist image" from his previous seven albums and moved to a more AvantGardeMusic style, inspired by carnival music and Music/CaptainBeefheart. Seeing that Waits was finally starting to get some success as a singer this was quite a bold move. In fact, the album was already recorded in 1982, but took Waits 13 months before he found a label interested in releasing it.

* CrapsackWorld: "In The Neighborhood"

'''Swordfishtrombones''' is a 1983 album by Music/TomWaits. In many ways "Swordfishtrombones" was a NewSoundAlbum. It was the first album he produced himself and the first to mark a radical change in style. He left his "drunk jazzy crooner/pianist image" from his previous seven albums and moved to a more AvantGardeMusic style, inspired by Music/CaptainBeefheart. Seeing that Waits was finally starting to get some success as a singer this was quite a bold move. In fact, the album was already recorded in 1982, but took Waits 13 months before he found a label interested in releasing it.

Side 1

Side 2

->''All the roots hang down, swing from town to town\\